Want a Boating Families Group

THOUGH holding continuous cruiser licences, moorers at Hackney on the Lee have formed a Hackney Boating Families group and want to be able to stay in one place and not move every 14 days as they agreed when taking out their licences.

There are seven boats, both narrowboats and wide beams, with the owners wanting to create a community moorings, managed as a co-operative, but still on continuous cruiser licences, Alan Tilbury reveals.

Create own moorings

They all at present moor by the towpath at Hackney, but want to create their own moorings offside on the river at Lower Clapton, that is owned by Hackney Council, but still on continuous cruiser licences, with the group making an application to form a co-operative. But of course it is to no avail as Canal & River Trust maintain that having such licences they must move as they agreed.

The demand for moorings in London, where boat living is seen as an alternative to high property prices is without precedence, with CaRT stating that since 2011 the number of boats without home moorings has doubled on the Regent's Canal alone. In 2011 there were 120, in March this year it surpassed 250.

Not designed for floating communities

The Trust's London Liaison Officer, Sorwar Ahmed responded that the increase in boaters is putting undue pressure on waterways that are not really designed to accommodate floating communities, "but CaRT is not a housing authority and housing is not one of its charitable objectives."

The families say the increase in boaters has brought stricter enforcement of the 14 day rule, with one boater, Jason Makepeace, remarking:

"The authorities used to be far more lenient. I need a space to moor my boat, where I don't keep getting text messages from CaRT telling me to move on."

Difficult to attend school

Another member of the Hackney group told the local newspaper, that has been enlisted to its campaign, that raising children in a floating home is not easy at the best of times but constantly moving the boats makes life difficult for families with children who need to attend school.

The group feel that the Trust is struggling between its new identity as a charity and its more familiar guise as a transport authority responsible for issuing notices, fixing leaks and mending bridges.

Simple solution

The solution is very simple, as most boaters realise. If boaters require to moor in one place to be able to attend work and/or for children to attend school, they obtain a permanent mooring. If they do not want to pay for a permanent mooring then they can obtain a continuous cruising licence, but then they most obey the rules and move every 14 days. They cannot have both, which the boaters at Hackney obviously want.